Various sprinklers have a rotatable nozzle assembly that includes a nozzle which throws at least one water stream outwardly to one side of the nozzle assembly. As the nozzle assembly rotates, the water stream thrown from the nozzle travels or sweeps over the ground. In a true full circle sprinkler, the nozzle assembly is continuously driven in a single direction without reversing to water a circular area surrounding the sprinkler. In a part circle sprinkler, the nozzle assembly oscillates back and forth between two stops to water a portion of a circle.
Some oscillating sprinklers are adjustable. The user can selectively set the distance between the two stops, which is known as adjusting the arc, to adjust the angular extent of the portion of a circle that is watered. This is done by some type of adjustment mechanism provided on the sprinkler. In some adjustable arc sprinklers, a scale adjacent the adjustment mechanism lets the user see what arc has been set.
Other oscillating sprinklers are not adjustable but are manufactured with fixed arcs of oscillation. In other words, a fixed arc oscillating sprinkler is one in which the distance between the two stops is fixed by the manufacturer and cannot subsequently be adjusted by the user. Different models of fixed arc sprinklers are typically sold by the manufacturer to water different angular portions of a circle. But, for any particular sprinkler, that sprinkler will water only one particular fixed arc as determined by the manufacturer at the time that sprinkler is built.
In the sprinklers described above, whether full circle sprinklers or adjustable or fixed arc oscillating sprinklers, the nozzle assembly is rotated by a rotary drive. The rotatable nozzle assembly sits atop the drive and is connected to an output shaft that sticks up out of the drive. As the drive operates and the output shaft is rotated, the nozzle assembly rotates on top of the drive. Often, the nozzle assembly and the drive form a riser that pops up and down inside an outer sprinkler body, the riser normally being retracted into the sprinkler body when the sprinkler is off.
When a manufacturer builds rotary sprinklers having fixed, non-adjustable arcs, namely either full circle sprinklers or fixed arc oscillating sprinklers, the drives and nozzle assemblies are manufactured separately and mated together at a later time during the assembly process. In some cases, the drives and nozzle assemblies may not be mated together by the manufacturer at all. The manufacturer might simply sell sprinklers having drives but without any nozzle assemblies pre-installed on those drives. The sprinkler distributor or purchaser of such sprinklers places a desired nozzle assembly on top of the drive at some later time, namely when the distributor is filling a particular order from a purchaser or when the purchaser is actually installing sprinklers in the field. This allows the purchaser to customize a particular sprinkler by installing a nozzle assembly having desired trajectory or flow rate characteristics.
The manufacturer typically marks the side of the drive with the arc that such drive is designed to water. For example, a full circle drive will be marked with the number 360 indicating that the drive is a full circle drive intended to water 360.degree.. An oscillating sprinkler drive built to water half a circle will be marked by the number 180 representing 180.degree.. However, this marking information is only on the side of the drive and is not usually visible to someone looking down on the sprinkler from above since the drive is typically retracted within the sprinkler body. Thus, when the sprinkler is not operating and the riser is retracted inside the body, the drive cannot be seen at all. Only the top of the sprinkler is visible.
Even though the arc being watered by the sprinkler is marked on the drive when the drive is built, the same information is not provided on the nozzle assembly because of the variety of different nozzle assemblies that might later be mated to the drive. Thus, when this mating is eventually done, whether by the manufacturer during a later manufacturing step or by a sprinkler distributor or purchaser following manufacture, it would be desirable for this arc information to be marked on the nozzle assembly itself. However, prior to this invention, there has been no way to permanently and durably mark the arc that the drive is constructed to water on the nozzle assembly or on some other portion of the sprinkler.